Bell Media has applied to have the federal broadcast regulator remove its quotas for local programming and news, in addition to reducing the amount it has to spend on Canadian content.

Though the applications were posted publicly by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Friday (June 23), they were submitted by Bell on June 14, the same day it announced that it would be eliminating 1,300 jobs and take a “new approach” to news coverage.

In an application for CTV’s Toronto station CFTO, Bell Media asked that the CRTC eliminate licence conditions related to quotas for local programming and local news, as well as expenditures related to local news broadcasts, applicable to all of its CTV, CTV2 and Noovo stations in Canada.

Currently, Bell is mandated to have its English-language stations in large markets broadcast 14 hours of local programming per week, with French-language stations broadcasting 2.5 hours of local programming each week (except for in Montreal and Quebec City, where the requirement is five hours). English stations must also produce six hours of local news content in large markets and three hours in small markets (though some lower levels have been set for certain smaller and regional stations), while Noovo Montreal is required to produce five hours of local news content.

In addition, Bell is required to spend 11% of CTV and CTV2’s gross revenues and 5% of Noovo’s gross revenues on local news.

The company said in its submission that, should these requirements be eliminated, it would not remove local news from its stations. Rather, being released from CRTC-mandated rules and quotas will provide more “flexibility […] to provide a better news service to the local communities that we serve.” The company also said that its current requirements “are unnecessary in light of the current economic environment in which we must operate and the flexibility accorded CBC/Radio-Canada.”

Some Canadian private broadcasters have previously said it is unfair that it competes with CBC for advertising while the pubcaster also receives government funding.

In a separate application to amend the licence for CJOH, its CTV station in Ottawa, Bell also requested several changes to programming expenditures across its stations, including reducing Canadian content expenditures from 30% to 20%. It is also asking that spending on Programs of National Interest (PNI) be reduced from 7.5% to 5%, and to have the category expanded to include music programming, variety shows, game shows and reality TV.

PNI requirements currently include scripted dramas, scripted comedies, documentaries and award shows. Rogers also asked to have the definitions expanded in a recent application for Citytv.

In its applications, Bell pointed to the latest CBC licence renewal, which eliminated local programming and news requirements, though that change is currently being re-examined by the CRTC. The CRTC also initially permitted that change because CBC has a public service mandate the regulator felt would prevent the elimination of local news programming.

Bell claimed that its local news stations have lost $583.7 million since 2012. In 2022, the company said its news operations had lost $40 million.

In a statement to Playback sister publication Media in Canada, the company did not directly answer questions regarding what kind of “flexibility” removing local programming would provide, or if there were any benefits beyond cost savings it was hoping to realize by reducing Canadian content expenditures.

“Bell Media is the leading provider of local news in Canada, but to sustain news operations into the future, public policy changes are desperately needed now,” the company said in its statement. “Even though we are Canada’s news leader, Bell Media’s news operations lost $40 million in revenue last year. Without changing how we operate to align with today’s shifting consumer demands, these operating losses will only grow. Now is the time for the CRTC to make reasonable regulatory improvements that will provide more flexibility in how Bell Media and other broadcasters deliver local news in major and smaller markets.”

In the company’s submission, Bell also pointed to TVA’s plan to eliminate weekend news broadcasts from one of its stations, though that still remains subject to CRTC approval. When TVA announced it planned to eliminate the broadcasts before the CRTC had made its final decision (something it has since reversed), Bell filed an intervention saying that either the Quebecor-owned broadcaster should be fined, or that all broadcasters be allowed to implement changes while still seeking regulator approval.

This story originally appeared in Media in Canada